The ORIGINAL gathering place for a merry band of Three Percenters. (As denounced by Bill Clinton on CNN!)

Thursday, August 5, 2010

I guess they didn't get the memo. Brady Bunch calls embarrassing attention to ATF's lack of a director.

Me and Paul Helmke, 19 April 2010, when the desperate publicity whore was piggy-backing camera time off the RTC Rally at Gravelly Point Park, Virginia. Contributions to the Brady Bunch are in the toilet this year. (Pained look of crapping glass doesn't come from acting school.)

The year and a half delay by President Barack Obama in naming a director to oversee the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives has seriously weakened efforts to enforce Federal firearms laws, thus jeopardizing public safety and national security.

The President has left ATF leaderless even while armed extremists have attacked military posts, museums, political targets and even the Pentagon. Approximately 45,000 Americans have been killed by guns and 150,000 have been shot and injured since President Obama took office.

The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence today issued a report on the consequences of this lack of leadership on the gun issue by the President. The organization sent a letter to President Obama on June 10 stressing the importance of naming a Director for ATF, but has not received a response.

ATF officials are now facing a foreign policy crisis exacerbated by the nation's weak gun laws, as tens of thousands of firearms have flooded across America's southern border to Mexican drug cartels killing thousands and threatening that country's democratically elected government.

A foreign policy crisis?!?!? Great Horny Toads, Yosemite Sam! Is World War III about to break out? The Bradyistas continue:

"The failure to nominate an ATF director for over a year and a half is unprecedented and threatens our nation's ability to combat gun crime and trafficking that arms criminals and terrorists," the report states. "No other President has allowed this critical position to remain vacant for so long."

The ATF, part of the Justice Department, has not even had an Acting Director since November 2009, when Ken Melson was required to step down due to statutory limits on how long an Acting Director can serve. There have been rumors for months that someone might be appointed, but still no formal announcement has been made. Meanwhile, Congress is now debating legislation misnamed the ATF Reform and Firearms Modernization Act, which would severely limit ATF's ability to revoke the Federal firearms licenses of gun dealers who lose hundreds of firearms from their inventories without any record of sale."

Some have suggested that President Obama has shied away from making a nomination for fear of resistance from the powerful gun lobby," the report argues. "As Senator and Presidential candidate, Obama was a forceful advocate for reasonable gun laws, but as President he has been unwilling to show any leadership on the issue. President Obama has signed into law legislation allowing guns in national parks and shielding important crime gun data from public view, contrary to the positions he expressed before taking office. Whatever the reason for the prolonged vacancy, the practical result is that public safety is endangered, foreign policy is threatened, ATF is less able to 'enforce the laws on the books,' morale at the agency suffers, and important legislation that would keep communities safe remains in limbo." . . .

"The Obama White House's inaction and silence about the gun issue puts public safety as well as the nation's security at risk," Brady Campaign President Paul Helmke said. "Firearms are flowing into the hands of extremists who say they want to overthrow the government, and into the hands of drug cartel killers who want to destabilize our neighbors to the south. How can we enforce any of the laws on the books, which are already much too weak, when the agency most responsible for that enforcement goes over a year and a half with no leadership?"

OK, so here's the deal, Paulie. Here's your first clue: If the Obamanoids haven't appointed a new director it is because they've got what they consider pretty damn good reasons of their own for not wanting to.

Faithful readers of Sipsey Street will recall that our slippery fifth floor intelligence agent Waldo, ensconced tight as a tick on the command deck at the "Concrete Asshole of the Universe," reported that the Obamanoid Chicago Gang was vetting one of their own, Andrew F. Traver, for the top slot at ATF, being somewhat upset at finding out that their first choice, former Acting Director (and now Deputy Director) Ken Melson, was actually serious about cleaning out the Augean Stables at Federal Gun Cop HQ. Like the only honest piano player in the whorehouse, Melson's rectitude was not in keeping with the corrupt anti-firearm agenda-driven Chief Counsel's Office and their political bosses who meet in Charlie Schumer's favorite Chinese restaurant in DC, the Hunan Dynasty on Pennsylvania Avenue.

Of course, The Gang was upset to learn that we had advance word of the Traver vetting, and especially upset that we had zeroed in on his links to the virulently anti-firearm Joyce Foundation. That the Joyce Foundation is Traver's weak link in terms of Senate confirmation was underlined by visits to this and other websites by folks at DOJ computers using the search terms "Traver", "ATF"and "Joyce Foundation."

Current betting in the fifth floor restrooms at the Concrete Asshole of the Universe is that Traver will end up as another acting director, because the last thing the Obamanoids want is a confirmation hearing featuring the Van Jones of gun control right before the election. But, they absolutely need somebody in there to tell Ken Melson to get down off his high horse and quit trying to bring law, logic and system to the agenda-driven cowboys of the Chief Counsel's Office.

Paulie and the Brady Bunch must not have gotten the memo. The very last thing Eric Holder wants right now is for anyone to be reminded of the petard they have hung themselves on -- thanks to all of the Chief Counsel's Office machinations over the years -- by having all of it dredged out by unfriendly GOP senators at a permanent director's confirmation hearing UNDER OATH.

No way in hell will Holder receive the Brady screed kindly. In fact, that Paulie was clueless enough to even issue it is proof positive of how out-of-the-loop and impotent he has become since the Obama regime took power. And after spending all that money and time getting one of their own elected. Poor Brady Bunch. Poor Paulie.

Guess he'll have to content himself with pimping camera time at Open Carry rallies. He forgot he was dealing with The Gang.

Texas Hold 'Em according to Wikistupedia: "The objective of winning players is not winning every individual hand, but rather making mathematically and psychologically correct decisions regarding when and how much to bet, raise, call or fold. By making such decisions, winning poker players maximize long-term winnings by maximizing their expected gain on each round of betting."

Mike, the Brady Bunch and the Obamanoids are in a cardgame. The Brady Bunch is waiting to call "Rummy! when the game is really poker. Meantime the Obamanoids are holding out for a Royal Flush and they are only one Jack off.

Only yesterday I was telling a friend how you helped Helmke purge his bowels at the rally in Virginia. He has the same expression on his face that the Black Panther racist swine did when they were run out of town in Houston. That's a great photo, Mike. You should send him one if you haven't already. Maybe he'll sign it for you. ROFLMAO

"If people are going to use their guns **to protect their rights**, then I'm uncomfortable with them having guns at all." -- Rep. Henry Waxman From memory, and ** emphasis mine, but that's the general philosophy of all these punks.

Thats the least of the Obama/Holder problems. Picked up the article yesterday of his brand new Arizona immigration problem over at Badeagle.com, it does seem its not quite over yet. Its a Constitution thing.

I remember when there was government gridlock in Washington. It was wonderful. I'm uncomfortable with how the Bradyites capitalize "federal" in the phrase "Federal gun laws" in the middle of a sentence. They complain that "ATF is less able to 'enforce the laws on the books.'" The Lairds in the People's Palace in Fairfax also love those laws "already on the books" and say we should obey them all. Don't worry, they'll sue, and the appointed-for-life Obama Supremes will uphold the Constitutional view -- in about 12 years. Right? Newbie Kagan included? Right? Thesis, antithesis, synthesis.

"Progress made under the shadow of the policeman's club is false progress."

I believe that liberty is the only genuinely valuable thing that men have invented, at least in the field of government, in a thousand years. I believe that it is better to be free than to be not free, even when the former is dangerous and the latter safe. I believe that the finest qualities of man can flourish only in free air – that progress made under the shadow of the policeman's club is false progress, and of no permanent value. I believe that any man who takes the liberty of another into his keeping is bound to become a tyrant, and that any man who yields up his liberty, in however slight the measure, is bound to become a slave. -- H.L. Mencken

On the efficacy of passive resistance in the face of the collectivist beast. . .

Had the Japanese got as far as India, Gandhi's theories of "passive resistance" would have floated down the Ganges River with his bayoneted, beheaded carcass. -- Mike Vanderboegh.

In the future . . .

When the histories are written, “National Rifle Association” will be cross-referenced with “Judenrat.” -- Mike Vanderboegh to Sebastian at "Snowflakes in Hell"

"Smash the bloody mirror."

If you find yourself through the looking glass, where the verities of the world you knew and loved no longer apply, there is only one thing to do. Knock the Red Queen on her ass, turn around, and smash the bloody mirror. -- Mike Vanderboegh

From Kurt Hoffman over at Armed and Safe.

"I believe that being despised by the despicable is as good as being admired by the admirable."

From long experience myself, I can only say, "You betcha."

"Only cowards dare cringe."

The fears of man are many. He fears the shadow of death and the closed doors of the future. He is afraid for his friends and for his sons and of the specter of tomorrow. All his life's journey he walks in the lonely corridors of his controlled fears, if he is a man. For only fools will strut, and only cowards dare cringe. -- James Warner Bellah, "Spanish Man's Grave" in Reveille, Curtis Publishing, 1947.

"We fight an enemy that never sleeps."

"As our enemies work bit by bit to deconstruct, we must work bit by bit to REconstruct. Be mindful where we should be. Set goals. We fight an enemy that never sleeps. We must learn to sleep less." -- Mike H. at What McAuliffe Said

"The Fate of Unborn Millions. . ."

"The time is now near at hand which must probably determine, whether Americans are to be, Freemen, or Slaves; whether they are to have any property they can call their own; whether their Houses, and Farms, are to be pillaged and destroyed, and they consigned to a State of Wretchedness from which no human efforts will probably deliver them. The fate of unborn Millions will now depend, under God, on the Courage and Conduct of this army-Our cruel and unrelenting Enemy leaves us no choice but a brave resistance, or the most abject submission; that is all we can expect-We have therefore to resolve to conquer or die." -- George Washington to his troops before the Battle of Long Island.

"We will not go gently . . ."

This is no small thing, to restore a republic after it has fallen into corruption. I have studied history for years and I cannot recall it ever happening. It may be that our task is impossible. Yet, if we do not try then how will we know it can't be done? And if we do not try, it most certainly won't be done. The Founders' Republic, and the larger war for western civilization, will be lost.

But I tell you this: We will not go gently into that bloody collectivist good night. Indeed, we will make with our defiance such a sound as ALL history from that day forward will be forced to note, even if they despise us in the writing of it.

And when we are gone, the scattered, free survivors hiding in the ruins of our once-great republic will sing of our deeds in forbidden songs, tending the flickering flame of individual liberty until it bursts forth again, as it must, generations later. We will live forever, like the Spartans at Thermopylae, in sacred memory.

-- Mike Vanderboegh, The Lessons of Mumbai:Death Cults, the "Socialism of Imbeciles" and Refusing to Submit, 1 December 2008

"A common language of resistance . . ."

"Colonial rebellions throughout the modern world have been acts of shared political imagination. Unless unhappy people develop the capacity to trust other unhappy people, protest remains a local affair easily silenced by traditional authority. Usually, however, a moment arrives when large numbers of men and women realize for the first time that they enjoy the support of strangers, ordinary people much like themselves who happen to live in distant places and whom under normal circumstances they would never meet. It is an intoxicating discovery. A common language of resistance suddenly opens to those who are most vulnerable to painful retribution the possibility of creating a new community. As the conviction of solidarity grows, parochial issues and aspirations merge imperceptibly with a compelling national agenda which only a short time before may have been the dream of only a few. For many Americans colonists this moment occurred late in the spring of 1774." -- T.H. Breen, The Marketplace of Revolution: How Consumer Politics Shaped American Independence, Oxford University Press, 2004, p.1.